Australia: Samuel and Sims at war over ACCC powers

Former competition regulator Graeme Samuel says consumers could miss out on cheap milk, bread and other deals if his successor, Rod Sims, is allowed to crack down on a big business for taking any action that might reduce competition.

Mr Samuel, who led the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission from 2003 to 2011, said adopting Mr Sims’ plan to abolish the “take advantage” test would give an unfair advantage to startups and small businesses at the expense of regular Australians.

“It means consumers will get a worse deal. Right now big businesss can buy large quantities of particular products and put a small margin above cost that will attract customers,” Mr Samuel said.

“We’ve had this with milk and we’ve had this with bread. There’s no predatory pricing going on. Big businesses are able to buy bread and buy milk and sell at a small margin, which smaller businesses are not able to do.”

The rare public split between the head of the competition regulator and his predecessor illustrates the deep difference between policy leaders over how tough big business should be regulated, and provides a tricky challenge for the Turnbull government.

Currently the ACCC can only crack down on anti-competitive behaviour by big businesses if they “take advantage” of their market power with the purpose of reducing competition.

Full content: Financial Review

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